BMW has made its vehicle configurator available directly inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, letting customers build a car through natural conversation instead of clicking through menus. The company says it is the first carmaker to offer this kind of dialogue-based vehicle advice via ChatGPT. The plugin works by text or voice on both smartphones and desktop computers, and adds another digital channel for reaching the brand.
BMW is expanding its digital sales and advice tools by placing its vehicle configurator inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Using the new BMW plugin, customers can describe what they want in plain language and receive model and specification suggestions in return, rather than working through the traditional step-by-step configurator.
Dialogue instead of menus
The idea is to swap menu navigation for conversation. Instead of clicking through options and sub-menus, users explain their needs — space, ground clearance, powertrain or how they intend to use the car — and the plugin proposes suitable models and configurations. Recommendations can be adjusted, compared and refined at any point in the chat, and factors such as running costs, driving dynamics, colour, model or all-wheel drive can be brought into the conversation.
BMW says the approach is aimed particularly at more complex specification requests, where a back-and-forth dialogue can make it easier and more intuitive to fine-tune a build. Comparing different configurations against each other is also meant to be simpler this way.
From chat to configurator
Once a customer settles on a specification, it can be opened in the standard BMW Configurator, and the plugin can also surface stock vehicles with a similar spec. According to BMW, all recommendations draw on the latest BMW Configurator data. Where a question goes beyond that database, ChatGPT can pull in current information from the internet, provided the relevant functions are available and switched on.
The plugin is built directly into ChatGPT. On chatgpt.com it is reached through the “Plugins” menu and a search for “BMW”, with much the same route on mobile devices when logged in.
What it means
The move reflects a wider shift in how people search and make decisions online, with conversational AI increasingly standing in for search engines and traditional websites. By positioning itself as the first carmaker to offer configuration through ChatGPT, BMW is testing whether generative AI can become a genuine sales and advice channel rather than just a novelty — a route rivals are likely to watch closely.
The BMW plugin in ChatGPT is available now on mobile and desktop.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com